The last abortion clinic in Mississippi has packed up and is moving on after being shuttered by a trigger law that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 reversed its controversial 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. On July 20 the abortion clinic ended its lawsuit seeking to block the state from enforcing a law that bans most abortions, the Associated Press reported.
Diane Derzis, owner of the now-defunct Jackson Women’s Health Organization, told AP July 18 the building that housed the clinic on North State Street in Jackson has been cleared out and sold.
Next steps for abortion advocates
She had previously stated that if Mississippi’s 2007 trigger law ever went into effect, she would move the clinic to New Mexico, one of the states not expected to take any action to forbid abortions after the Supreme Court ruling.
The clinic was the focal point of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Mississippi case that the Supreme Court used to overturn Roe v. Wade. Dobbs, the state health officer at the Mississippi Department of Health, recently announced his retirement.
In the wake of the clinic closing, billboard appeals have sprung up around Mississippi announcing that women considering abortion still have a “choice.”
Olivia Raisner, co-founder of Mayday Health, which bills itself as a health education nonprofit, told WLBT-TV in Jackson, “you can ban abortion clinics but you can’t ban information, and that’s where Mayday comes in.”
The group advocates medication abortion. A search for the headquarters location of Mayday Health was unsuccessful.
